Well, maybe some of you remember reading about my questions about changing
the hard radiator return line to soft tubing.  I took the advice given to me
and got rid of the two plastic sleeves I bought at Lowe's.  These were the
sleeves that connected the soft lines together.

I bought two peices of metal tubing at Lowe's and intended to use them.  But
I got to thinking-  this same tubing I used in my house for plumbing and in
no time it started to degrade.  Maybe it reacted with the copper, I don't
know for sure,  but I decided not to use it.  I don't want to have to do
this again.

I called around to all my local parts stores (yes, FLAPS!), and no one had a
1 1/4" plastic sleeve made for cooling systems!  They all said it was an
unusually large size.  One or two wanted to sell me exhaust sleeves.  I
didn't feel comfortable with this.  So what to do?

I decided that I could salvage small sections of the hard line that I was
removing.  I cut two sleeves, each about 5" long, from the old return line.
Luckily there was enough without any signs of rust.  Now granted this hard
line has no lips or ridges on the ends, but I did double clamp every union.
Anyone see a problem with this?

I suspect this will work just fine now.  So from my radiator I have the
factory soft line running into a section of the factory hard line.  To this
I have clamped a straight soft tube, then a sleeve.  Next the "bendable"
soft tube, another sleeve, then the engine compartment factory equipment
soft line.

Thanks for all the help!
Bradley Flubacher
State College, PA
'84 soon to be running again,
'82 diesel westy, pulling into the garage next, thanks to the arrival of my
new diesel compression test kit from "Hands on tools"